Pulock joins 2012 fourth overall pick Griffin Reinhart and 2009 first-rounder Calvin de Haan in the stable of prospects on the Isles defense. Throw in Travis Hamonic (2008 second round) who’s already established himself in the league and you begin to understand why people like where the team is headed.

With those guys on the blue line and forwards like John Tavares, Michael Grabner, with Brock Nelson on the way, youth is and will be king on Long Island.

With the lack of video of how things played out and everyone having to go by word of mouth to figure things out, this doesn’t come as too big of a surprise. The fact he’ll still have three games to serve, however, is a bit of a head-scratcher.

If he had left the bench on a legal line change and fought, the only punishment he would’ve received would be five minutes in the box.

Then again, without there being much, if any, evidence as to what happened neither side can really prove their case. Bissonnette getting seven games back was probably the best he could hope for.

UPDATE (6:58 p.m. ET):It’s official from the NHL – his suspension is reduced to three games. The league cites the lack of video evidence as the main reason for the reduction. Bissonnette will be eligible to return to action on October 10. He’ll give up $11,346.15 in salary to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund because of the suspension.

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ryan Malone is battling injury yet again, but it looks like he’ll be ready for the season opener.

Damian Cristodero of the Tampa Bay Times reports Malone is working through an upper body issue that will keep him out of their preseason finale tonight against Florida. Coach Jon Cooper says, however, that Malone should be ready for the season opener on Thursday against Boston.

“We just thought it was best to kind of relax and make sure everything’s still good,” Malone said. “There’s really no concern, it is just part of the plan to make sure you’re ready for game one.”

Malone is a key component of Tampa Bay’s forward attack but staying healthy has always been an issue in his career.

Last season he missed 24 games, half of the schedule, and has missed a total of 91 games in his five seasons with the Lightning. If missing a preseason game helps keep him in the lineup when the games count, the team will take it.

Both players have seen a lot of action so far in the preseason and both have shown they’ve got enough game to stay with some of the NHLers, but whether they’ll stick around for more than nine games before being sent back to juniors is another question.

It seems questions about the financial status of the Ottawa Senators and owner Eugene Melnyk aren’t about to go away.

In speaking with the press at the opening of “Sens Mile” in Ottawa, Melnyk spoke about his ongoing battle with the city’s mayor over the location of a new casino as well as how the team is doing with money. As Wayne Scanlan of the Ottawa Citizen reports, it sounds a bit dicey at the moment.

Though only four NHL clubs have more salary cap space than Ottawa’s $8.2 million, beyond a payroll of about $57 million, Melnyk said his team is “already over budget, I just found out (Thursday).”

He stressed the point he believes Ottawa is a “price-sensitive market” but also shooed away questions about possibly relocating the team to help fix that “problem.”

Winning on a budget appears to be the Senators’ aim now and with the team set up how they are now, many prognosticators like their chances of success this season. In the end, Melnyk said he believes teams have to be in the top-half of spenders to be competitive.